O'Sullivan's Law at the Movies: J. Edgar and Cultural Decay

But now, listen to portions of the movie's review by Manohla Dargis of the leftist New York Times. "The tenderness of the love story in 'J. Edgar'” comes as a shock." "Mr. Eastwood, working from a smart script by Dustin Lance Black... takes a dynamic approach to history (even as it speaks to contemporary times...)" "[Eastwood's] handling of Hoover and Tolson’s relationship... lifts the film from the usual biopic blahs."

Okay, you may read this nonsense and say, "Ah, well, there's no accounting for taste." But I think a more plausible explanation for it is that Ms. Dargis is full of crap. I do not believe she found the tenderness of the movie a shock, or the poorly constructed script smart, or the antiquated handling of the story uplifting. I believe she said those things only to tout a film with a pro-homosexual agenda. (I say this as a gay-friendly libertarian.) The Times is infamous for this sort of thing, as documented in William McGowan's book Gray Lady Down. The paper lies to its readers, in other words, to promote those cultural productions that support their favored causes.

Compare this to the work of my friends at Breitbart's Big Hollywood, one of the most important conservative salients in the culture war. Editor-in-Chief John Nolte and his crew routinely lambaste conservative films on the basis of quality, never allowing their politics to get in the way of either their aesthetic judgment or their commitment to a writer's first responsibility, the truth as he knows it. Even when he recently complained about the conservative failure to support pro-conservative movies, BH's Assistant Editor Christian Toto confessed, "'The Undefeated' made a night spent watching MSNBC feel fair and balanced by comparison. 'Atlas Shrugged' raised the bar for stiff, unnatural acting. And 'An American Carol' delivered a fraction of the laughs from director David Zucker’s previous hits, 'Airplane!' and 'The Naked Gun.'”

One cultural group committed to dishonest support of its agenda, another committed to honesty first, politics second. Over time, the natural result will be that artists, knowing they're guaranteed praise and awards for their politics, will turn to the left more often than the right, for whom they have to produce quality work. As a result, the culture will, ala O'Sullivan, decay leftward over time.

And yet, despite this — and despite those conservatives who say we must become more like the left — more dishonest, more Alinskyite, more exclusionary — in order to win, win, win the fight against them, the fact is we don't actually have that option. The very thing that makes conservatism what it is compels us to a different path.

Big Hollywood has it right. Our only real alternatives are to expose them relentlessly, oppose them entirely, and fearlessly point with our words and actions toward our better and freer way.